Ex-CEOP Chief Jim Gamble joins board of kids charity PACT

Cherry wrote:Patrons, Cherie Blair and Laura Bush

Hon. Chairs include Hilary Clinton, Henry Kissinger, Sir David Veness and actor Michael York.

also see

[url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parents_and_Abducted_Children_Together

Get 'em Gonçalo wrote:
mwilliamsthomas Mark Williams-Thomas
Ex-CEOP Chief Jim Gamble joins board of kids charity PACT run by ToryParty treasurer Lady Catherine Meyer via @TimesCrime
20 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply

[url=http://twitter.com/#!/mwilliamsthomas

A charity, a lady, a scandal
Michael Ezra, May 31st 2011, 11:00 am

A charity is often a very good cause. Whether it be assisting the aged, abused children, mentally handicapped, a repair for a local place of worship, cancer research, starving kids in Africa, or a plethora of other causes, we can understand why someone is shaking a tin for loose coins or requesting a cheque, a standing order payment or a prize to be auctioned or raffled to raise funds for the charity. If we have not heard of the charity, possibly because it is small, but the cause sounds reasonable and those associated with it include the great and good, then we may make a donation without much further investigation. This could be a big mistake.

I bring to your attention the charity PACT: Parents & Abducted Children Together. The website of the charity informs us that PACT “works with the government, the police and other NGOs to improve the way in which missing childrenís [sic] cases are handled, so that they can be rapidly located and retrieved unharmed.” Abducted children: a fine charitable cause. Tesco is associated with the charity. Among others, the trustees of the charity include the author Barbara Taylor Bradford, a former head of Special Branch in Northern Ireland and Sir Christopher Meyer, former British Ambassador to the United States. This is not all because the patrons include both Cherie Blair, wife of a former British Prime Minister and Laura Bush, wife of the former American president. A very credible selection of people.

Those that donate money to charity, however wealthy they are, have limited funds to donate. A donation to one charity means a smaller or no donation to another. If asked by a friend or acquaintance for a donation to PACT, a charity founded in 1999 by Lady Meyer, the wife of Sir Christopher Meyer, one might have done so in the belief that their donation was doing good. But was this really the case?

As the accounts of the charity show, in 2010 income was £97,805 and expenditure, £80,491. In 2009, the income was £28,445 and expenses £87,640 leading to a loss, even after taking into account unrealised investment gains, of over £50,000. When we look at expenses we can see that over £49,586 of expenses in 2010 related to the salaries of Catherine Meyer (Lady Meyer) and her administrative assistant. The Daily Telegraph understands that nearly 70 percent of that money was related to the salary of Lady Meyer. In 2009, expenses directly related to the salaries of Lady Meyer and her assistant was £63,877. It is quite easy to see why the charity lost over £50,000 that year. Donations to the charity seem to have done more to pay the Chanel-clad Lady Meyer her salary and expenses than they have done to assist abducted children.

People set up or involve themselves in charities for all sorts of reasons and not all of the reasons are necessarily altruistic. Improving social standing, developing contacts or trying to secure a knighthood might be included as to a reason for involvement. Donors to charities understand that this is case but do not begrudge such side benefits if the charity is hugely benefitting from their efforts. Donors to charities also understand that a charity might need to employ professional staff who need to be paid. What they do not expect is that the big-wigs at the top of the charity, the so-called great and good, are paid.

It makes a mockery of giving to charity if the charitable donations are going to a person who can use the funds to purchase more Chanel suits, designer clothes that the donors cannot afford for themselves. When a beggar on a street informs us he is “homeless and hungry” and requests a donation, he might not be telling the full truth about his condition, but at least he is being honest as to who is to be the recipient of the donation .

lj wrote:I don't know much about charities in Britain, but I am all too familiar with the non-profits and charities in the Washington DC area. It is an inextricable web of organizations where money and positions are shuffled and used to reward, bribe or sometimes to corrupt and pervert people. Any calamity, disease or other disaster is welcomed because it offers new grounds for these fungi to sprout. It's a sickening world and if by accident you end up in there you should get out as fast as possible, because, before you know it, you are tied to scandalous or even criminal actions.

aquila wrote:If a teenager runs away from home six times in a year does that equal 6 missing people in the figures?

PeterMac wrote:

aquila wrote:If a teenager runs away from home six times in a year does that equal 6 missing people in the figures?

It is worse than that.

Because of the Rules of Children's Homes (very proper Rules, obviously)
every time a child / young person is late back it is reported as a "Missing person"
even if it has just missed the bus, or stopped to pick up a bag of chips on the way back.
This can be hundreds of times, per child / young person per year.

Sunday, July 15, 2012
PACT: Matthew Steeples Exposes PACT - LADY MYER And Her Charity - Nothing More Than A Sham.
Published BY Matthew Steeples. 2011

I am Matthew Steeples and having seen this I thought I should explain how I came to be involved with a charity that turns out to be a sham. I met Lady Meyer with mutual friends in 2004. She was charming and polite and I had no reason to doubt her or her motives. She had just returned from Washington, where her husband had been an ambassador at a most interesting time in history. She was a good conversationalist and well versed. He had interesting tales to tell. She told of the problems she’d had “recovering” her children. When she explained what, she claimed, happened, I thought “how awful” and felt her plight. She mentioned she was having a fundraising ball at The Dorchester and asked if I would like to come. I attended along with friends. Between us we spent £1500 on a table.

I now cannot comprehend why I then continued to believe this lady and her nonsense for six years, but sadly I did. I supported Lady Meyer’s events initially just by attending, but invited her to a dinner I gave above the Ferragamo showroom in 2005 and at this point she persuaded me that I should become more involved.

She asked me to get involved in fund raising for PACT. I should have asked to see PACT’s accounts. I did not and there is no excuse for that. It is a lesson I will take forward with me and I urge others to do the same. Do NOT donate to a charity without knowing that the majority of funds raised actually goes to the cause rather than on salaries. Over the following years I, without charging the charity a single penny and believing that Lady Meyer did the same, I helped organise:

PACT with STARS, Ralph Lauren, 25th May 2010;
PACT Barbecue, Firehouse, 10th July 2010;
PACT Emilia Wickstead Fashion Show, Papillon, 23rd April 2009;
PACT Speed Dating, Firehouse, 20th November 2008;
PACT Speed Dating, Stanza, 7th February 2008

At most of these events, the majority of attendees came from my address book and those of my friends and so to did the majority of donations. My friends were also duped by the supposedly charming Lady Meyer and her infectiously enthusiastic manner. They handed over cash, paintings, prizes and gave time to create drawings for another fundraiser. They gave up their time, they wrote letters supporting PACT and most of all they believed in Lady Meyer and her cause. They, like me, wanted to support missing children. In addition, Lady Meyer took advantage of my personal connections to help her in other ways. She was determined to forge herself a new career and I involved her in a project I had been approached about. Strangely the people who I was dealing with pulled out after meeting her. I think I now know why. Though she now states “I used to earn a whole lot more in the city”, in relation to her charitable salary, this successful company didn’t want anything to do with her.

At Christmas in 2009, the Meyer pair had nowhere to go as the Eurostar was cancelled and their planned trip to Paris couldn’t happen. I invited them into my home for the day. In the six years I knew them, never did they invite me to dinner in their home and I can only think of a couple of occasions where I was a guest at a lunch or dinner – and I wonder now who really picked up the bill.
The first cracks came in April 2009 when a good friend had a very public row with Lady Meyer. Letters were exchanged and I told this individual how wrong he was. It was me that got it wrong though and for that I again apologise to my friend.

I helped come up with the idea for the “PACT with Stars” event for International Missing Children’s Day in May 2010. I became so heavily involved in this matter and probably spent two-three days a week on it for over 7 months. I did not charge a penny for this work. The majority of the committee were friends of mine. The majority of the personalities who contributed drawings were friends or contacts of mine. The majority of donated prizes were given by my friends. Some were worth hundreds of pounds, some were worth many thousands of pounds. All were given to support missing children and given in good faith. Our time and donations were not given to support salaries. I apologise to all who I asked to support this.

During the weeks running up to the launch of “PACT with Stars” at Ralph Lauren’s Fulham Road store, I became increasingly suspicious of the motives of the Meyers. The event went from being about charity to being one about the Meyers. The press interviews were about Catherine Meyer in the main rather than focusing on the charity. Ralph Lauren, who seem so generous to the “Chanel-clad” one, took precedence over all other participants. “We cannot offend them,” Lady Meyer said. We now know why.

As the day of the launch grew ever closer, Sir Christopher’s focus was exposed when asked about one particular interview. He said “We must do the interview, Catherine. It’s good for OUR profile.” At this point I finally realised what this “charity” was about. In one sentence he summed it up perfectly. PACT was a vehicle for the profile of the Meyers and now we know it was also a source of income for them too. How stupid I had been not to realise I’d been hoodwinked for so long. I did not, at that stage, though, know where the funds raised would end up.

A year has passed since the “PACT with Stars” event and during that year, though I told all who asked about what went wrong, I did not talk to the press. It is Richard Eden of the Telegraph’s Mandrake who is to be credited in exposing this story. He is the one who generated a story that has run for over a month in both his paper and the Independent and in both of their letter columns. The one thing, though, that really exposed the scandal of a charity that pays some 50% of income to its founder and her assistant and considerably more in expenses were that charity’s very own accounts.

A common misapprehension, however, is that I gave Richard the story and this must be corrected. I did not do this. If I had done such, I would openly admit it as I am incensed about what has been exposed. I did, however, give a comment in the Telegraph’s second piece and it is indeed me and my friends who have written many of the letters about the scandal. For the Meyers now to go about having their stooges attack me and Twitter barbed remarks that are extremely offensive only shows what an own goal they’ve truly scored.

I am sad that the efforts of so many to raise funds for missing children, encouraged by me, have been exposed for having not benefitted them. This is a charity that brings charity in general into disrepute in a most shocking manner. I stupidly fell into the trap of believing that just because they had what seemed like a good background, Lady Meyer and her husband had a good motive in all they did. I am a fool for believing such.
I unreservedly apologise to my friends for having involved them with this sham.

Matthew Steeples (@daSteepsSpeaks) gives background to his meeting Lady Catherine Meyer and subsequent involvement with PACT

sharonl wrote:
I have only ever seen 1 missing people poster, it was advertising the charity. I have never seen a poster, bill board or anything other than their website, with a picture of a missing person in my area.
Has anyone ever come across a an actual appeal for information poster regarding a missing person from this charity?
How many missing people have been found by this charity?

PeterMac wrote:

sharonl wrote:
I have only ever seen 1 missing people poster, it was advertising the charity. I have never seen a poster, bill board or anything other than their website, with a picture of a missing person in my area.
Has anyone ever come across a an actual appeal for information poster regarding a missing person from this charity?
How many missing people have been found by this charity?

I think you will find they don't actually DO anything to find missing children.

Their professed role is sorting out the difference between Islamic Law and Christian Law so that children taken - "abducted" - by the Muslim father from the Christian wife can be returned to the Christian wife.
It is a branch of Public International Law (aka Conflict of laws) and many skilled and educated lawyers spend their lives dedicated to it, - without the "help" of a Charity,

This is in fact what happened to "Lady Meyer".  Islamic Husband took the children back to Egypt, or wherever, and won't hand them back.
So she set up a Charity and pays herself £ 85,000 a year.

On the website some time ago one of the successes PACT claimed was attending a reception at No 10 !   No doubt when the Blairs were there.

All this begs the question as to why the McCanns got involved in this whole dodgy enterprise in the first place, since it had and has NO NEXUS with their claimed situation.